Video Games Books

After the miserable failure of a guide for GTA San Andreas, Brady Games have redeemed themselves with a true strategy guide for Liberty City Stories. Maps are accurate, missions have tips, and I would never have gotten the hidden package off the gas station without this book.

Bought this for my husband not so much for the information on missions but the items to be found. Apart from that he only uses it if something doesn't quite make sense and hes already tried many times to do what is necessary. Solves all those stressful moments and saves him tying up the PC looking for help online!

I am a fan of official game guide and I have to say that this game guide is one of the good ones. I am still playing Grandia III and so far this game guide helps me much. I love it and it worths every cent of my money.

...The question is how badly will you need it? Grandia III is a fairly linear and straightforward game. It doesn't have a whole lot of secrets and there aren't very many (if any) sidequests at all. So do you really need a guide? Well, not really. But if you do get one because you're stuck or just need the extra leg up, you should be glad there's a quality guide out there like this one. It'll let you know what's ahead of you and help prepare you for the most dangerous foes.

The guide begins with some "advanced tips". So if you're the type that picks up a strategy guide for the game basics (helping you adjust to the battle system if you're new to it, or anything like that) then you won't find them here (but your instruction manuel is there for that reason, of course). However, for what it's worth, most of these tips are pretty good. They help you learn where some of the best level up spots are and how to acquire some good gold early on in the game. There are also tips for the gambling, for creating mana eggs, and also giving you info on rare enemies like the Lucky Mink. They also list out which enemies have the most hit points, are the strongest etc. In a way, it seems like they're just trying to make good use of paper in the beginning.

Afterwards, the real strategy begins. Everything you need to know about characters is here. All their skills and how to get them, beginning stats and how well they are in battle. A chart is also provided to show you just how characters level up. Each character is given a set of stars next to each stat. For example, if a character maintains a good HP level as they level up, the guide gives them three stars. This can easily be used to tell you who is best for what.

The walkthrough doesn't waste time. It isn't sluggish at all. Each section gives you a list of objectives and then points them out to you on the map. There's more to these maps than pointing out items, goodies, save points and whatnot. They also provide you with all the enemy groups. Also, in a chart provided they tell you what to expect by battling an enemy group and how much experience and gold you'll get. This helps you decide if a battle is worth it. The screenshots are blurry, though. Which won't be a big problem, you can mostly make out what's going on. The boss strategies aren't particularly helpful. They spend a lot of time repeating the same thing for just about each and every boss (cancel attacks), but they don't always tell you what to expect. I let this slide because the game tells you what a boss is about to attack with and the guide does inform you when you should cancel. It really does a good job on providing you with defense, but not always an effective offense.

The appendices section was nice, however. Giving you the low down on all the items, weapons, armor, accessories, mana eggs and skill books. When telling you about magic they do a fantastic job telling you what spells are powerful and which ones will help. They also tell you what mana eggs will make certain mana eggs. However, they do this as a list. Under Volcano Egg, for example, they'll list out every combination that'll give you a volcano egg. Was a chart too much to ask for?

The bestiary is very detailed. No problems there. Everything you need to know about all the enemies is perfectly detailed in an easy to read manor. They even have a separate bestiary for the bosses, which makes figuring out the stats for a boss rather easy. It can easily be expressed that a Grandia guide probably doesn't need a bestiary, but there are times when you're glad you've got it.

Overall this is a pretty satisfactory guide. 240 pages is a bit exhaustive for a Grandia guide, however. Don't be fooled by it's size. It may be detailed but there's a lot of unused space. So don't think 240 pages means you're buying a Grandia encyclopedia, it's just another basic strategy guide. However, it's a good guide. If you're stuck in Grandia III, it's a fantastic guide. Again, though, I have to tell you, Grandia III isn't a game where you'll find yourself in dire need of a strategy guide. Even if you're someone who likes to bask in all those secrets, you won't need it for the simple fact that it's a Grandia game... and a Grandia game hardly needs a guide to help you unearth all the secrets.

The Good
+Detailed Walkthrough
+Helpful tips
+Great character analysis and breakdown
+Easy to use walkthrough
+Detailed bestiary
+Skill books, mana eggs and more!

The Bad
-A chart for making the different mana eggs would've been nice
-The boss strategies are good on defense but not always offense
-I just can't shake the fact that you most likely won't need this guide. Grandia III doesn't have any lucrative secrets. So if you do decide to get this guide, avoid paying sixteen dollars for it.

It's a great guide, but it isn't a guide that you'll get a lot of use out of. Still, it's five star quality, so pick it up.

I still buy and read the Guinness Record book every year, because it's become like an old friend that I like to catch up with, but I have to disagree with Birch East. I like the way it has changed and brings out a fresh look each year. The changes, like holograms, 3D whatever, make it fresh every year. My nephews also are big fans of the 3D gimmick.

I do agree with the recommendation for Getting into Guinness: One Man's Longest, Fastest, Highest Journey Inside the Most Famous Record Book, the new book by Larry Olmsted about the history and culture of the Guinness World Records book. After reading his review I snapped up a copy and it is great--very entertaining and a fun read! I have read the record book for years but never stopped to wonder where it came from (Guinness Beer!), how it got so big, and how large a role it has played in pop culture, and just how crazy some of the record holders seem to be. Getting Into Guinness is the story behind the records and a fun, well researched, adult read.

I first read the Guinness Book of World Records when I was kid back in the 70s, and it's comforting to see it still going strong. I'll say that I definitely preferred the old school text-heavy versions from back in the day to the flourescent lime, 3D photography, picture-fest of today. It's a new world we live in now, so I guess it's hard to fault the Big G for keeping up with times.

As much as I've long loved the Guinness book itself, I was always a little disappointed that there wasn't a good resource written ABOUT Guinness -- its history, evolution, and especially about how it became the phenomenon that inspires people to carry out such dedicated acts of nuttiness. About two weeks ago, I saw a book profiled in USA Today titled GETTING INTO GUINNESS by Larry Olmsted. Olmsted is a journalist as well as a GBWR record-holder, and I gave it a try. Well, it's the perfect companion piece to the Guinness book; it puts everything into context and lets you feel like a real insider. 300 pages of fascinating real life stories about the quest for Guinness recordhood, and Amazon has it for about 16 bucks! Buy them as a tandem (which is what I should have done) and you'd even get free shipping with Prime. Getting into Guinness: One Man's Longest, Fastest, Highest Journey Inside the Most Famous Record Book

In Half-Real, Jesper Juul presents us a not only a new definition for games (computer-based or not), but also an original perspective on videogames and how they operate. Going beyond the 'Ludology x Narratology' discussion, Juul balances the 'Rules' and 'Fiction' elements of video games, emphasizing how they relate to each other.

The book is very insightful, containing information that will be valuable to game designers, academics, gamers and new media enthusiasts. Although you could find some of the its content on Juul's previous articles available on the internet, they are much more complete polished in Haf-Real.

Very good book on the theory of videogames. Accessible, innovative, thoughtful, and centered on concrete (and popular) examples. He also includes lots of screenshots, which is good.

Juul takes what might be called a "grassroots" approach to game studies, not bringing heavy disciplinary baggage to colonize the area, but instead trying to build a formal theory of games from the ground up. He takes his lead primarily from game and culture theorists like Huizinga, Caillois, Crawford and Sutton-Smith rather than from literary theory or media studies. But he really charts his own course and stakes out his own ground in many ways.

He has a strong interest in game rules, which has led some to criticize him for being overly formalistic, but I find this a refreshing and interesting contrast to the more standard "new media" approach to video games.

This guide book is all you need for a great start on Sunny Island! It's got everything from maps, character profiles, crop guides, price lists, animals guides, and much, much more!! Definately worth it!

-animal guide
-crop guide
-recipe guide
-Bachelor and Bachelorette Guide
-heart event guide

all in one!! BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

what is this helpp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hexen 2 is probably the best game as of this day. It combines beautiful 128-bit graphics with strategy & action that only Raven software and its staff can create. Doom had worse graphics and was quite boring since there was no decisions you had to make (you were simply supposed to shoot everybody). Raven software was very creative in making this game (for example no other 3-D game ever had their boss grow in size so realistically and the archers in this game are by no means stupid--they will quickly dodge your attacks). The strategy guide for this game explains almost everything. The illustrations allow you to imagine the creatures and places better. Since Hexen 2 came out I have never seen as better game. And there probably won't be (at least until Raven software creates a new game in the Hexen series.

I have always been skeptical about buying strategy guides, but the author of this Hexen game guide really knows how to put it together to make the book totally understandable and easy to use. From the beginning where there is a brief synopsis of the game and what led up to it, to the in-depth analysis of the 3 playable characters, the monsters, and tactics to deal with them, what weapons to use for each different situation, and how to use the artifacts to your advantage. However, where this guide really shines is the walkthrough section. Extremely detailed, easy-to-read maps for all 31 levels, and the text accompanying the maps is like having your own personal tour guide along with you. Mind you, I don't like to use a strategy guide to spoil all the adventure, but when you play this game, you realize it is almost essential to have some 'help' along the way to victory against Korax and his minions. In closing, I would like to add that I hope to see more strategy guides from this author, as he is very player-friendly in his layout of his guides.

Great maps. Extra Cheat codes in the back if you really want them. Helpful descriptions of each hub and what you are trying to do in each one. Because I had the book (I don't usually buy these kinds of books but I was really "stuck") I got deeper into how to use different artifacts that I normally just ignored. This made the game so much fun that I played it twice as two different characters.

This guide was put together very well. Because of the games inherently nonlinear (in other words, no one way to complete it) game play, it should only be used as a reference.

This book was great. i couldnt beat the first mission until this book help me see the light. it shows the little things us gamers miss when we run through games. definitly buy this book.

There came a moment in House of Games, in the movie, where I knew I'd heard something. I rewound, played, heard it, rewound played, heard it, and found that about the fourth time around, I was patting my thigh, in tune with something or other; the Mamet-speak. It's rhythm.

And then the script. I read that same scene (it's the one: "you gotta tell. Your telling which hand the coin is in") and the same thing. Aha! yes. But I had heard the scene. I remebered the scene. What about the others? Back to page one. The same thing. And then it became not what they were saying, but how they were saying it, and then it became WHO was saying it. And sometimes I wished they hadn't said it. But then the thought occurs with starry eyes: "thank God they did".

You like the movie, read the script. There's soemthing to be said for just you and the pages.

As far as screenplays go, House of Games is a work of great cutting quality; written in Mamet's recognized concise style, House of Games permeates with a foreboding, volatile aura. When a too structured and career-driven yet refined and scholarly Dr. Margaret Ford, psychiatrist and author of the best-selling self-help book, Driven, is duped into helping Billy Hahn, a young man with a gambling addiction, she gets more than what is bargained for. She is led into the seedy underworld of the con man and all the baggage associated with him: drinking, unabashed gambling, lasciviousness, intricately woven lies, extremity upon extremity. But it is all cleaverly camouflaged by the many defrauders whom she encounters as exciting danger, rebellion against the smothering laws that only "good" citizens adhere to and being on the outer fringes of decency, good breeding and highbrowism. Ford, who gravely lacks any form of enjoyment in her life, is immediately drawn to the pulsating raw truth and "think quick" lifestyle of the brazen swindlers, for they gradually convince her-through a series of cons-that all humanity are imbued-one way or the other-with absolute cold indifference, for if you get bamboozled, it's your own fault and you probably deserved it. Dr. Margaret Ford exemplifies that for everybody. But she does not merely epitomize as a victim, she typifies it, through her own unsettling metamorphosis, as a kleptomaniac, murderess, and ultimately, a con woman. She evolves from good, introverted intellectual and respectable doctor to a cunning, manipulative, vindictive killer with a proclivity for thievery. So then the question is posed: Was Dr. Ford inherently a repressed criminal or was she the product of the sleezy environment and those in it? As Ford penetrates to what she genuinely believes is the psychological core of the sharpie personality, she is led by the leader, Mike, into a smoothly orchestrated plot that eventually bilks her out of $80,000; soon after, the scheme goes terribly awry when Mike holds a mirror to Dr. Ford's face, a mirror that she long avoided looking into.

Mike: I "used" you. I did. I'm sorry. And you learned some things about yourself that you'd rather not know. I'm sorry for that, too. You say I acted atrociously. Yes. I did. I do it for a living. (He gives her a salute and starts for the door.)

Ford: You sit down.

Mike: I'd love to, but I've got some things to do.

She cocks the gun.

(Of gun:) You can't bluff someone who's not paying attention.

Ford shoots him. He falls.

Mike: Are you nuts? What are you...nuts...?

Ford: I want you to beg me.

A radical turnabout occurs whereby the aloof victimizer becomes the casuality of his own folly, only to be replaced by Ford, who progresses onward to hone and define his criminal teachings, meticulously making them more her own. Ford's criminality is even more severe, for she turns into one of the criminally addicted patients that she (by her medical practice) is designated to help; her overall presence is refined, classy, learned, delicate, vulnerable, unsuspecting. Those are the worst kinds of lawbreakers: A friendy face on the outside, and something entirely different on the inside.

Most sudoku books have a lot of very easy and boring puzzles in them. This book is uniformly strong. It's not impossible at all. I never had much trouble solving any of the puzzles, but they are all pretty challenging. A typical puzzle in this book required me to take one guess, and be ready to erase everything after the guess, if necessary, and go back and follow the other route. This book is exactly what it claims to be, if you change the word "impossible" to "interesting". It's a lot better than most other sudoku books out there because they are just too damn easy.

Seems like all the books claim to be impossible and I bought the "Mensa" book for my wife and she just laughed at it. With this book, you don't have to skip to the back to get to the good ones. From puzzle one we were happy and the only let down is knowing that when you finish this book, you may be out of luck on finding one to compare. As others have mentioned at first you might need to make one guess to solve the puzzles.